ADB, ORIX and Robeco create private equity firm Asia Climate Partners

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), ORIX Corporation (ORIX) and Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. (Robeco) on Monday announced the formation of Asia Climate Partners (ACP), a joint venture that will undertake commercially-oriented private equity investments across a variety of environmentally supportive, low-carbon transactions throughout Asia.

ACP, which will be capitalized initially by $400 million from its founding partners, will be based in Hong Kong, China. It will be staffed by a team of experienced private equity investment professionals, and dedicated to investing in renewable energy, clean technology, natural resource efficiency, water, agriculture, forestry and other climate-friendly companies and transactions that are structured to generate market-driven, risk-adjusted returns and have a positive environmental and social impact.

Todd Freeland, Director General of ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department, said:

“We believe that ACP provides an innovative platform to deploy capital into climate-related transactions across Asia that are designed to generate attractive returns.”

“ACP will benefit from the combined strengths of Robeco as a global asset manager and ORIX and ADB, which are two of the most active and successful investors in the low-carbon sector in Asia. The substantial resources that the founding partners are committing to ACP will help position it as the preeminent investor in this asset class in Asia from day one, and represents a clear signal of the depth of our collective belief in the investment strategy and its return potential.”

Asia’s economies are among the fastest growing in the world, and are faced by some of its most significant environmental challenges including poor air and water quality, inadequate and unreliable supplies of energy, and inefficiencies in the utilization of existing supplies of energy and other natural resources. Given increasing public and private sector focus on these challenges, and the historically low levels of capital deployed in these areas, investment in renewable energy and resource efficiency has the potential to grow at 2-3 times economic growth in Asia over the next several decades.

Leni Boeren, member of the Management Board of Robeco said:

“I am delighted that ADB has chosen Robeco to act as investment manager of this exciting joint venture platform. This is a milestone in our successful cooperation with ORIX and is further evidence of our growing commitment to creating attractive new investment opportunities in Asia for our institutional investor partners around the world. We believe that our recognized expertise as investors in resource efficiency, sustainability and private equity will contribute significantly to the ultimate success of ACP.”

Yuichi Nishigori, Corporate Senior Vice President at ORIX, said:

“ORIX has established an extensive network through more than 40 years as an active investor, owner and operator of businesses throughout Asia,” . “The energy and environmental sectors are core components of our business strategy, and our investment of capital and people into ACP represents a continuation of our commitment to being a leader in this field. Asian countries are in need of securing rapid and sustainable economic growth and must satisfy the ever-increasing needs of their people for a higher living standard and quality of life. This initiative will contribute to providing necessary capital for Asian economies to meet such demands.”